


The Apartment

by kenwaylights



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Canonical Character Death, Cute Kids, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Inspired by Real Events, Latino MacCready, MacCready has anxiety, Minor Character Death, Nicknames, Single Parents, and by that I mean the town and cafe are based on the one where I used to work, it's been sitting in my drafts for three weeks please take it away I can't look at it anymore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-05-25 21:28:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14985980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenwaylights/pseuds/kenwaylights
Summary: That wasMac'sapartment. She had no right to move into it.Well, it wasn't his technically. Legally. He'd never lived there. But that doesn't mean she could move in there! The audacity! Who did this new girl think she was?!A coffee shop-ish AU in which Mac works in a café in a little rich folk town trying to make a buck to take care of his kid, and he dreams of living in the beautiful apartment upstairs...until the Sole Survivor steals it, then has the nerve to become a regular at the café. But he's not bitter or anything. No way.





	1. The Bubble Burst

**Author's Note:**

  * For [8rocks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/8rocks/gifts).



> I'd like to formally dedicate this to my number one gal 8rocks, as I often do, but this time am Legally Required to do so because she got me Fallout 4 (the GOTY edition, because she's such a doll!) as a combined Christmas/Hanukkah/birthday gift, and now we have a rule that we have to share any and all FO4 stuff we like or make with each other. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ Also she gave me this prompt so really this is two reasons why this is dedicated to her.
> 
> Anyway! MacCready is tied with Nick as the companion with whom I am in love the most. And I headcanon Mac as half-Latinx (probably because I think he looks a bit like Diego Luna?), and as such, that's very lightly touched on here. The town where Mac and company live is heavily based on the one where I used to work in a café myself. Whoops.
> 
> Sole Survivor purposely left as vague as possible so you can imagine yours, but I did mention a few physical traits of mine.
> 
> [Travis voice] So uh, hey, here's a thing!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These are just gonna be short little chapters, because like I mentioned in my tag-blabbing, this started as a oneshot that just got out of hand. Turning it into a multichap ficlet thing actually made it less stressful in the process of trying to figure out an ending, heh.

There was an empty apartment above the little bakery/coffeehouse where RJ ‘Mac’ MacCready worked, and if he had the means and it had been big enough for his whole family, he would have moved in there himself.

It was a beautiful two-bedroom, very spacious with more natural light than you could ever ask for, and it was surprisingly cheap, especially for this side of town.

He wanted that stupid apartment, but it just wasn’t meant to be. And besides, he had a pretty good arrangement with his folks that he wouldn’t trade for the world.

Still, part of him held out hope that it would just stay empty. The others could have residents, but he wanted one to be free, if only for his daydreaming purposes.

It was a sunny Tuesday afternoon in late April when his dream was finally crushed. Some Imperator Furiosa wannabe and her massive German Shepherd moved into  _ his  _ apartment, already sticking out like a sore thumb in this community, effectively bursting the bubble of his fantasies. Sounded like the dog had a dumb name, too, if he’d heard it right.

An hour and a half after he had seen her disappear upstairs with the final box, she popped down to the café.

Mac tried his best not to glower at her and internally call her inappropriate names that would earn him  _ such _ a talking-to from his four-year-old.

“Hi,” he said, sounding a lot more grouchy than he intended. He shook his head, cleared his throat and tried again. “Uh, hi, what can I get for you?”

“D’you mind if I use the bathroom first?”

“Oh. Sure. Just down the hall to your right.”

She was back surprisingly fast, but judging by the massive Shepherd hamming it up under a table out back, she had taken Meathead — or whatever his freaking name was — for a walk before stopping by.

He was startled when she announced her return, having been watching the dog. Though Mac didn’t want to admit it, because she was his sworn enemy now, her pup  _ was _ pretty cute.

“Uh.  _ Ahem.  _ D-do you know what you want yet?”

“You’re gonna hate me for this,” she replied with a sheepish little laugh, “but what would you recommend to beat the heat that also has caffeine?”

He blinked in surprise. “Oh. Well, that depends on how much caffeine you want. Or need.”

“I pulled an all-nighter for work last night and am now paying the price for it, but I have to stay up late again tonight.”

“I’m gonna recommend a large quad shot frappe.”

“Sounds great.”

“Caramel, white chocolate or mocha?”

“Let’s go with caramel. And can I get a cup of water for my dog?”

“Sure, sure. Anything else?”

“That oughta do it.”

“Lemme whip all that up real quick.”

When the drink was finished, she thanked him, went out back and sat with her dog. She stayed for a good half hour, scrolling through something on her phone and petting her dog.

Mac hated that she didn’t actually seem all that awful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my mental outlining of this, I've planned for seven mini chapters. It might change, though not drastically. We shall see.


	2. The Rings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mac's bitterness gets in the way of casual conversation. Why is he like this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Mierda" = "shit."
> 
> This is a bit sad. Sorry 'bout that.

The next day, she came by at 7:30am to order a blueberry muffin and a black tea lemonade.

“How’d that quad frappe work out for you?” he asked when she got up to the counter.

“Fantastically. Thank you so much. It was better than Starbucks, I swear.”

“Got your dog with you today?”

“No, he’s gotta stay home ‘cause I’m on the way to work.”

“Yeah? Where do you work?”

“Well, I have two jobs. I’m interning at a law firm as the last part of my degree program before graduation, and I do mechanic work at the shop around the corner.”

“That why you moved upstairs?” He really did try not to be bitter, it just kind of happened.

“Partially. I worked at their other shop a couple towns over for years before they transferred me over here, and it was just time for me to get a new place.”

“Size is okay?” He noticed the two gold wedding bands that hung from a ball chain around her neck along with dog tags. “‘Nough room for all three of you?”

“‘Three’?” Her hand came up to fiddle with her necklace absentmindedly. “It’s just me and Dogm—  _ oh. _ ”

He immediately felt awful. He shouldn’t have assumed, especially since he had only recently stopped wearing his ring, and Lucy had been gone for three years now. What kind of insensitive hypocrite said something like that, just to be petty? “I’m sorry, I—”

“It’s alright. My husband passed almost two years ago, along with my son.”

_ Mierda.  _ Mac couldn’t even imagine. Losing Lucy was bad enough, but if he had lost Duncan too, he was pretty sure the grief alone would have killed him. “I’m  _ so  _ sorry.”

Well,  _ now _ he very well couldn’t be mean to the lady living in his dream apartment, could he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that in FO4 Mac tries his best not to swear (he used to, in FO3, I've seen screenshots) but we all let slip sometimes, ya know?


	3. The Nickname and the Anniversary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MORE SAD HUZZAH (content warning for canonical spouse death but also for the death of a child). This chapter is a lot longer too!
> 
> This is a hard day for Sole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Expect me to run this Meathead vs Dogmeat joke into the ground in this fic and future ones because I really think I'm just so funny

She became a regular, always ordering either the frappe, the black tea lemonade or a dirty iced chai. Occasionally with food involved, half the time with water for her doofus dog.

Mac was still salty about the apartment, yes, but he had to admit, the law student/mechanic/dog mom was starting to grow on him. From a server/customer perspective, of course.

When he asked her name once, on a busier time when she came in and he _had_ to put a name on the cup, she replied, “My friends call me ‘Sole.’”

_Soul? Sol? Sole?_ He wasn’t sure, and it showed on his face. _What the frick does that even_ mean _and how the heck do I spell it?_

She chuckled. “As in ‘Survivor.’ Like the Blue Öyster Cult song? Or the Asia song? Both of which are titled ‘Sole Survivor’?”

Okay, that made _way_ more sense.

One night after he closed up the shop, he headed a few blocks down and over to the Mexican restaurant where his cousins worked.

And he happened to find her at the bar.

The music was still loud and the restaurant was still in full swing, but there was a noticeable lull as most people were finishing their dinners and last drinks.

Not her.

And by God, she looked so effing sad as she stared off into space.

Mac chewed the inside of his cheek. His cousins didn’t get off for another hour, and by that they always meant at least two hours, so… _Aw, screw it._

“So which one are you?” he asked as he hopped up on the stool to her left.

“Huh?”

“Asia or Blue Öyster Cult?”

“What are you talking about?”

He stayed patient. He’d gotten good at that — having a kid will do that to you. “When I asked for your name two weeks ago, you said your friends called you ‘Sole’ like ‘Sole Survivor,’ like the Asia and Blue Öyster Cult songs. So, which one are you? Asia or Blue Öyster?”

The corner of her mouth twitched up into the tiniest of smiles. “Honestly? It fluctuates. I think most of the time I’m Asia.”

Mac cracked a grin. “I sure hope so, ‘cause the Blue Öyster song is bleak as all get-out.”

“You’ve heard them?”

“Looked ‘em up after I got off work that day. My expanse of knowledge as it related to Blue Öyster Cult was ‘(Don’t Fear) the Reaper’ and ‘Burnin’ for You,’ and Asia was limited to ‘Heat of the Moment,’ of course.”

“Of course,” she echoed.

“You get it. And I thought the Asia version was way more hopeful. Blue Öyster’s was so depressing.”

Sole quirked an eyebrow and chuckled sardonically. “That’s how it is sometimes.” She took another swig of what looked like a Long Island Iced Tea with raspberry.

“Don’t I know it…” He paused and tried to think of something else good to say. “How’s work?” _Real smooth, genius._

“‘S’alright. You?”

“Livin’ the dream.”

Another awkward (in his mind) pause, this time twice as long.

“What’re you doing here, Mac?” Sole asked with such a pitifully sad, disconnected tone.

He was surprised to hear her say his name. He didn’t know why, because he wore a name tag on the job with _MAC_ in big letters handwritten on it, but he was, in a nice way. “Ah, my two cousins work here. We were gonna go get a couple things before we head home.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, nothin’ fancy, just a six-pack of Mike’s and a small cake from the grocery store. It’s Jaime’s birthday, but we’re all too tired to do anything for real today. Figured we’d save it for his next day off, y’know.”

“Fair enough. But what are you doing _here_ ? On _that_ barstool?”

“Honestly? You looked like you needed a friend. And I got time to kill, so I figured it might as well be me.”

It was her turn to be pleasantly surprised. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. Now are you gonna tell me what’s bothering you, or am I gonna order another round?”

“Uh…”

“Too late, I’m doing both.” He waved to get the bartender’s attention and spoke to her in rapid-fire Spanish, then returned his attention to Sole once their drinks had been made. “So what’s up?”

“This is a...hard day for me.”

“Oh? Something happen at work today?” Then again, she _had_ seemed pretty subdued that morning when she came in for her tea and lemonade…

“No, not that. I took off work today. Wouldn’t’ve been useful on the job in this state. Went for a drive instead. No, ah… This is the anniversary of my husband and son’s passing. Two years ago today.”

“Aw, jeez…”

“Yep.”

“I’m so sorry, Sole.”

“Thanks.”

“How old was your son?”

“Not even a year.”

“ _God…_ That’s awful, I can’t even imagine.”

She nodded solemnly. “I miss ‘em every day.”

“I believe it.”

“You got kids?”

“One. A four-year-old boy named Duncan. Light of my life, ‘specially after his mom died.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too.”

Neither of them wanted to ask what happened.

“So,” began Sole in that ‘we’re changing the subject now and you can’t stop me’ kind of way, “when do your cousins get off?”

“Well,” he laughed, “funny story, actually. Their schedule says they work till eight, but we all know that really translates to nine.”

“Makes sense.” Halfway through a swig of her new Long Island, she squinted at a poster on the wall. “What’s all this about a ‘summer kickoff party’?”

“Oh, that? That’s something we do in town every year the second week of June.”

“Why not do it in May?”

“‘Cause people are still in school in parts of May and June is more prime for out-of-state folks to come around and blow their money.”

“Oh. Makes sense. What do people do?”

“It’s like a big ol’ block party the town throws. People get drunk, listen to live bands, set off fireworks after dark, give the businesses hell — the usual, y’know. But I don’t think the auto shop’s gonna be affected, it’s mostly the food joints ‘round here who’ve gotta work extra and stuff.”

“That’s rough.”

“Yeah, you can say that again. I got lucky, I only have to work a morning shift to prep the shop ‘cause Duncan’s got a doctor’s appointment at noon and then I’m home free, but Jaime and Oscar are stuck working till ten, AKA eleven.”

“Yikes.”

“Yeah. But if Duncan’s feeling up to it, we might walk around and get ice cream or something. He likes to see all the dogs, even if he can’t pet ‘em. Li’l buddy doesn’t realise not every dog wants to be friends, or that some of ‘em do but’ll knock him down in the blink of an eye.”

That got a laugh out of her. He was glad for it.

“You should bring Meathead with you, if he’s not afraid of fireworks.”

“What? Who the hell is Meathead?”

“Your dog?”

She laughed again, harder and heartier this time. “His name is _Dogmeat!_ ”

“Well that’s an equally ridiculous name so you can’t be mad at me for getting it mixed up!”

“Can’t argue with that, I s’pose.”

“Why on Earth would you name a dog that?”

“I didn’t name him, he’s a rescue!”

“And you _kept it?_ ”

“It was unique! I didn’t wanna change it!”

_Unique person’s gotta have a unique dog, I guess,_ he mused through a gulp of his drink.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I named Mac's cousins after a couple fav Latinx actors/musicians (Jaime Camil and Preciado + Oscar Isaac) because I am unoriginal and the first name that actually came to mind started with R and I didn't want to have RJ and another R name you know that would just feel silly


	4. The Kickoff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The town's Summer Kickoff Party is upon us. OooooOOOOOooohhh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another long'un for y'all.
> 
> Lots of conversational backstory. As such, some sadness. But not overwhelming amounts.

The thing about cutesy rich people towns is that they love festivals like it’s nobody’s business.

Every year, restaurants ask their bosses to please give them more staff with better hours for the Summer Kickoff Party. And every year, bosses ignore these pleas and stretch their staff as thin as possible while also tacking on extended hours of operation.

Joy.

MacCready showed up to the shop at 5 o’clock in the morning to start prepping food and doing the pre-opening cleanup. Truthfully, he liked being there alone before opening. He got stuff done at his own pace without being bothered and he could play whatever music he wanted with no one bitching about it, and he could sing along if he wanted to — not that he was too good at it, because his voice cracked all the time, but he’d be damned if he didn’t _try_ to hit those notes.

He made multiple batches of bread, muffins, cookies, protein bars and grab-and-go sandwiches and cleaned the espresso machine, made sure everything was as spotless as could be, and then he waited.

The shop opened at 7 sharp, right on schedule, and the first person in the door was, to Mac’s surprise, Sole.

“Hi!” she said as he put the keys back in his pocket and watched her with the most perplexed expression.

“How long were you waiting out there?”

“Just 15 minutes, no big deal.”

“ _Why?_ ”

“Would you believe me if I said I wanted to beat the rush?”

“Not for a second. You’re here for your caffeine dose, you junkie.”

“Don’t be rude, it’s not my fault you’re my favourite barista and you’ve made it so I don’t trust any other person to make my coffee.”

“You sure it’s not ‘cause you live directly upstairs and don’t want to go anyplace farther than that?”

“If that were the case, _Luke Danes,_ I would be wearing my pyjamas. As you can see, I am in outside clothes and all cleaned up for the day.”

“ _Now_ who’s being rude?”

“How is that rude? I loved Luke.”

“You were comparing me to him in a very accusatory tone.”

“Only because you’re being a grouch.” She paused, squinting at the ceiling. “Are you listening to Fall Out Boy?”

He hadn’t changed it yet. “Whoops. Thanks for reminding me. Gotta change it.”

“Why? I like it,” pouted Sole.

“‘S not ‘family-friendly,’” replied Mac with gratuitous air quotes.

“Bullshit! There’s nothing wrong with it!”

“‘Why don’t you show me a little bit of spine you’ve been saving for his mattress?’” he recited with a raised eyebrow, leaning on the doorframe of the office, brim of his hat shading his eyes. “‘I only want sympathy in the form of you crawling into bed with me’?”

“You’re saying you never listen to this stuff when Duncan’s around?”

“Yeah, but he’s _four._ None of these words make sense to him put together like that, he doesn’t even know what sex _is_.”

“He hasn’t asked where babies come from yet?”

“Not me, and if he asked his abuela she’d shut that sh— uh, she’d shut that down real fast. Very Catholic, my mother. Not gonna let her give Duncan his sex ed ever, much less at four years old. Drink?”

“Usual frappe please. And a blueberry muffin, if you’ve got one?”

“No blueberry today, but the cranberry batch is fresh out of the oven.”

“Even better!”

Mac chuckled and rang up the order.

“Got someplace to be today?”

“No, that’s actually why I’m here…”

“Oh? Hang on, ‘bout to get loud…” He bobbled his head back and forth while the blender ran. “Anyway, you were saying?”

“I know the Kickoff is today, and you know I’m not super familiar with this part of town or its people.”

“Don’t you talk to them when you work at the auto shop?”

“I get really minimal customer interaction.”

“Gotcha. Go on.”

“So I was hoping, if you and Duncan were gonna go… Maybe you’d wanna meet up for a bit or something?”

“Sure, sounds like fun.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, why not? Jaime and Oscar are gonna be working, so he and I are gonna hang around the area for awhile anyway. We can get a drink or something to eat or whatever.”

“Thank you!”

“Sure, sure. What time did you wanna meet?”

“Whenever you want. I can hole up at home till you’re ready to go out.”

“Duncan’s got his appointment in the city at noon, and we won’t be back till maybe 1:30… Kickoff starts around 2… Uh…” He did some quick math in his head, cross-referencing with an imaginary schedule grid. “How’s 3:00 sound? That’s usually when stuff starts getting interesting. Any earlier and you’ll be bored, too much later and you’ll be hitting hardcore foot traffic.”

“Sounds great! How far away do you live?”

“Fifteen minutes that way.”

“Where d’you wanna rendezvous?”

“Right outside here is fine. Don’t you have someplace to be?”

She checked her phone. “Shit, yeah, I have to get to the office. Thanks for breakfast!”

“You bought it for yourself. It’s my job to give it to you.” He was smirking, but trying to suppress it.

“Whatever, thank you anyway,” she fired back pleasantly as she shouldered the door open and left.

 

“You ready for this, champ?” Mac asked the little one leaning on his left leg.

“Ye!” Duncan replied, quietly but enthusiastically.

“Remind me what the rules are.”

“Umm… Don’t pet dogs without asking first…”

“Right…”

“Don’t wander off or run away…”

“Yeah…”

“Don’t talk to strangers… And, um…”

“You’re just missing one more, pal, you got this.”

“If I get lost, go back to the coffee shop.”

“Good job, buddy!” Mac crouched down and playfully jostled his son, who laughed raucously. Duncan swatted his dad’s hands as they tried to tousle his hair, but his effort was in vain and he had to fix it. “We’re gonna hang out with my friend and her dog while we walk around, is that okay?”

“Ye!”

As if on cue, Sole and Dogmeat were rounding the corner just then. “Heyyy!”

Mac stood up straight again. “Hey there. This is my son, Duncan — can you say hi, bud?”

“Dad, you _just_ said don’t talk to strangers.”

Sole and MacCready both tried to suppress laughter. “I know, but this is my friend, Sole.”

“Your friend’s name is ‘Sun’?”

She shot a look at Mac, and he answered quickly, “He’s bilingual, my mom primarily speaks Spanish.” To his son, he explained, “Nope, ‘Sole’ like ‘only.’ With an ‘E’ at the end. And she has a cool dog, I bet she’d let you pet him if you asked nicely.”

Apparently this was enough information for Duncan to decide that Sole was an acceptable stranger to talk to. “Oh. Hi.”

“Hey kiddo,” Sole greeted, crouching as Mac had before and telling Dogmeat to sit next to her. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too. What’s your dog’s name?”

“Dogmeat.”

“‘Dogmeat’?”

“It’s kinda weird, I know. You can laugh if you want to, it won’t hurt his feelings.”

Duncan did giggle a little. “Can I pet him?”

“Of course you can! He likes hugs and giving kisses, too, so watch out for slobber.”

Duncan had very good dog manners. He held out his little hand for Dogmeat to sniff — and he did sniff, then lick, the child’s hand before bumping it with his nose to ask for pets.

Dogmeat loved this kid and he’d only known him for two minutes. (Honestly, he had never met a child he didn’t like, but he really seemed to have taken a liking to this one.)

A pang hit Sole in the gut like a softball as it occurred to her that Dogmeat would have loved having a kid in the family — that he would have loved having _Shaun_ in the family. But she reminded herself that Dogmeat and Shaun would never have coexisted in her life, given the circumstances; she wouldn’t have found the stray German Shepherd wandering around the boarded-up gas station if she hadn’t been on that drive to get away after the funeral…

_Stop. This isn’t the time or place. Snap out of it._

She shook it off.

“Ready to go?” asked Sole, straightening back up.

“Yeah, whenever you are.”

“How do you guys usually do this?”

“Well,” Mac explained, drawing a deep breath, “I like to go about it in an organised fashion — start at one end, zig-zag through the aisles all the way through — but ever since Duncan learned how to walk, I’ve kinda been following him more.”

“Gotta keep him in your line of sight,” she agreed. “Where d’you wanna go, little man?”

“Ice cream!”

“Mmm, I think you should have some _food_ -food first.”

“Uh… French fries, _then_ ice cream?”

“Better.” Mac looked to Sole as the group started to head towards the burger/ice cream joint’s stall. “He’s a good kid, real calm nowadays, total lovebug. He’s just got his mom’s never-settle nature. Questions everything. Always demanding answers, always negotiating. He’s more of her than me, he just _looks_ like me.”

“You said ‘nowadays,’ was he less calm before?”

“Oh he- _heck_ yeah. Cried all the time, hardly slept. When his mom passed, he was just over a year old — you know how hard it is being a single dad working two jobs at 19 years old?”

“Yikes. That’s really rough. How’d you manage? If you don’t mind me asking, of course.”

“My family had my back. I lucked out with them. My mom’s been in my place too, ‘cause my dad died when I was younger, and her older sister helped take care of her. My aunt has two sons and they’re both older than me, they’re the ones who work down at the restaurant. So with all of them under one roof, I got a small village to help me raise Duncan. After Lucy died, they told me to move back in with them and they’d help me so long as I straightened out my act. It’s a good arrangement; we compare schedules and stay home with Duncan accordingly. I dunno what I’d’ve without ‘em.”

“I’m glad you have them. You’re all raising a great kid.”

Mac smiled softly. “Thanks.”

“So you like working at the coffee shop?”

“God, no. But it pays eleven bucks an hour and not many other people really wanted to hire a single dad with a criminal record and no college education.”

“Crim—?”

“Long time ago, before I got married. Doesn’t matter now. Just got mixed up with the wrong people and paid the price for it, that’s all.”

“Okay.”

He appreciated that she didn’t press.

“What about you? Got any family nearby?”

“Ah, no. Kinda moved out here to run away from everything after Nate and Shaun died. My parents are states away and I don’t have anyone else. Nate had a sister, but his family stopped talking to me after the funeral. I think...no, I _know_ they blame me. I mean, I blame myself sometimes, but I know it’s no way to bring them back.”

“How’d that work with your law school?”

“Transferred.”

“Oh. Nice. And the auto shop?”

“When I got my first apartment out here, I applied for the first job whose skill requirements I met, and then two years later after they’ve opened up a new location they’ve got me working there as one of their best mechanics.”

“ _Nice._ ”

“Yeah, they like me. It’s a good setup.”

“What about Dogmeat, where’d he come from? You said he was a rescue.”

“He was. Sort of. Um, when I was driving out here after I packed up and left with minimal warning, it was raining because of course it was, and I came across this abandoned, boarded-up gas station with a dog wandering around outside it. So I pulled over, thinking he might be lost, and I tried to convince him I was safe so I could try and call his owner. Didn’t have any tags or anything, and we were in the middle of friggin’ nowhere, so doing what probably would’ve been a stupid decision with any other strange dog, I got him in the car and drove till I found a rescue. Little old lady who worked there didn’t even let me open my mouth before she asked where I’d found him. Apparently he’d gotten loose during a fundraising event and they’d been looking for him for two days. She said it must’ve been fate, because he clearly had chosen me. I was gonna say I couldn’t have a dog right now, I wasn’t in the right headspace to care for another living being, but she said to me — and I’ll never forget this as long as I live — she says, ‘I know you’ve been through so much already. I can feel your pain from here. But you need him. He’ll take good care of you if you take good care of him.’ And that’s how I ended up with a 90-pound teddy bear.”

“That’s quite the story,” he chuckled. They had reached the stall. “You want anything?”

“I’m okay, but thank you!”

“Sure thing.”

He got Duncan a kid’s meal and a small dish of vanilla ice cream with blueberries, just like he liked, and just got a cherry Coke and cup of water for himself.

When he set the water on the ground, Sole was puzzled until Mac clicked his tongue to Dogmeat and pointed at the cup.

“Thank you,” she said earnestly.

“Don’t mention it,” he responded with nothing but kindness.

“You’re supposed to say ‘you’re welcome,’ _Dad_ ,” piped up Duncan.

 

Mac’s cousins insisted on taking home a very sleepy Duncan and that Mac stay out and have fun.

He tried to protest, but Jaime cut him off, “You haven’t had a night off to yourself in years.”

“You don’t have to be on Daddy Duty 24/7,” added Oscar, raising his eyebrows.

“And let’s be real, bro,” Jaime continued, “you ain’t been on a date in five years.”

“It’s not a date,” Mac tried to explain, but his cousins only exchanged a glance.

“You keep telling yourself that, dude,” Oscar sighed as he took the half-asleep Duncan out of MacCready’s arms. “We’ll take care of him. It’s no big deal. Go have fun.”

Without his kid to provide both conversation and excuses to leave, Mac was at a loss as to what to do when he headed back to the picnic table where Sole sat.

“You sure I’m not keeping you from anything?” She was genuinely concerned.

“No, actually.” He sounded surprised. “You want a drink?”

“Sure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fallout. Fall Out Boy. Fallout Boy. Bleheheh.  
> When I forgot what the Vault Boy's name, when I first began playing, I very nearly looked up "cartoon Fallout boy." Whoops.
> 
> Fun fact: I get all Jell-O-legged when dads call their sons "little man." I don't even want kids.
> 
> Anybody catch that tiny Mama Murphy cameo?


	5. The Breakdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mac's on edge about Duncan hitting a major milestone. It causes problems at work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

The morning after Duncan’s kindergarten open house, MacCready was still emotional.

“And my baby’s gonna be away all day for five days out of the week,” he whined as he was fixing Sole her black tea lemonade. “I know I’m gonna be working those hours anyway, but what the heck am I supposed to do with myself on the days I’m not? Just pace around till it’s time to pick him up?”

Sole bit back a chuckle. “I dunno, Mac.”

“I requested his first day off just so I could wait around by the phone if he needed me. Is that pitiful?”

“That sounds normal enough to me. I always hear about parents majorly fretting on their kids’ first day. Is anybody gonna be able to stay home and wait with you?”

“Dunno yet.”

“Well…” Sole gestured a bit aimlessly. “You have my number, so… If you need to just scream anxiously, text me.”

“I’ll be putting that to good use.”

Duncan’s fifth birthday had been last week, at the very start of August — qualifying him to start kindergarten the following month. He had gone to a preschool program with the church Mac’s mom and aunt attended, but that had only been four hours maximum in the mornings. Duncan had never been gone all day before. Mac was terrified. Even though his son had never told him anything about having a rough time with other kids or anything, he worried that suddenly bullying would start. Now that he was going to an actual school, there were plenty of other things to be afraid of.

The MacCready side of the family had genetic predispositions to mental health struggles — namely anxiety and depression. Little RJ had gotten both, diagnosed at the age of 12. Of course, the deaths of his father and his wife hadn’t helped at all, and being a parent comes with anxiety built-in, but in Mac’s case, it meant that where he was in life right now caused him to constantly be somewhat disconnected from reality and perpetually shaking, struggling to breathe and ready to cry at the drop of a hat. He couldn’t focus on anything but all the possible ways something could go wrong with Duncan.

His reflexes betrayed him when he was trying to get some fresh-brewed coffee from the machine instead of just telling the irate customer to wait five to ten minutes for the new pot to brew. Scalding hot coffee poured directly onto his hand, and though his reaction was delayed by half a second, he did yelp loudly.

Sole, who had been sitting in the corner on her laptop doing homework, snapped her attention to him.

“If you can’t give me that coffee, it’s fine,” huffed the patron. “I’ll just take an Americano.”

Mac was on the verge of angry tears, but admirably was able to call his coworker up to take over for him while he went to the bathroom.

“Really?!” he hissed at his reflection as he ran cool water over the burn.

There was a knock at the door.

“Occupied,” he snapped.

The door opened anyway. It was just Sole.

“Oh. ‘S just you.”

“Looked like a pretty nasty burn,” she said softly. “You okay?”

“I will be. Just hurts like nobody’s friggin’ business.”

“You want help?”

“Don’t think there’s much you can do, honestly. But I think I’m gonna go home. I’m pretty useless like this.”

“I’ll drive you.”

“What? Why?”

“Mac, you just let piping hot coffee fall all over your hand and you didn’t react in time to best minimise damage. I mean, you’ll be fine, but I refuse to let you take the same risk while driving.”

He sighed. “Guess you’re right.”

“Thank you. C’mon, champ, go talk to your bosses and I’ll pack up.”

“What about my car?”

“We can come back for it later when you’re feeling less useless.”

“Okay.”

Well, his boss was less than pleased, but he didn’t want to deal with workers’ comp, so he let Mac go.

 

They actually ended up going to the pharmacy for supplies to care for his hand, then to a pasta-centric fast food joint to unwind a little bit.

“Now,” began Sole cautiously, “you wanna tell me what’s going on?”

“I’m just worried about Duncan, that’s all.”

“I think it runs a little deeper than that.”

He sighed again. “My anxiety’s been kicking my butt over this since before his birthday.”

“You wanna talk about it?”

“It just gets worse sometimes, if there’s something to worry about. I’m terrified something’s gonna happen to my kid. Everywhere I look, there’s news about horrific sh— _stuff_ happening in schools. And then there’s even the little things like bullying. Only reason I wasn’t bullied worse than I already was in school was because I had my cousins to back me up and keep me safe. Duncan doesn’t have anybody like that. And I’m… I’m…” He trailed off when his breath hitched in his chest like something had hooked into it. “I’m just _scared._ Feels like I got a rock on my chest all the time, feels like I’m always shaky, I’m always out of it, I’m always _this close_ to having a nervous breakdown.” Mac pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes, then stared at the ceiling. He didn’t want to look anyone in the eyes. If he did, he’d cry. “I’ve always been a crybaby, but this is torture.”

“I understand.” She paused, taking a bite of her food. “Do you do anything to deal with it? Therapy? Medication? Support groups?”

He laughed sardonically. “Even if I wanted to do any of that, I couldn’t afford it.”

“Support groups are free. There are a bunch of them around here. But I know they’re not for everybody.”

“What do you do?”

The question took her by surprise. “I started therapy after I got settled here.”

“Yeah? How’s that work for you?”

“It helps. I take anxiety medication for post-traumatic stress as well. That helps too.”

“Hmm.”

“Seeking help for yourself doesn’t make you weak or a bad parent or anything, Mac,” she promised him.

“See, deep down, I know that. But I still got this little voice in my head telling me it does.”

“I know.”

“You wanna go see a movie?” he asked suddenly after a lull in conversation.

“Don’t you have to get back home?”

“My family’s not expecting me back for another…” He checked the clock on his phone. “I was only at work for two hours? _Jeez._ Anyway, they’re not expecting me back for another six. Figure I can cut that a little bit shorter, but I’d really rather not go home super early and have my aunt chew me out for missing work, even if it was injury-related.”

They saw some random heist movie. It was alright. Nothing to write home about. But it calmed Mac down a whole lot, and that was the only goal anyway.

While they exited the cinema, Sole asked, “So, question for you.”

“Sure.”

“‘Mac’ is a nickname, right?”

“Sure is.”

“Where’d it come from?”

“It’s short for MacCready. That’s my last name.”

“That’s...very Scottish.”

“My dad was Scotch-Irish.”

“So what’s your full name, then, if I may ask?”

He snorted. “Robert Joseph MacCready. If people don’t call me Mac, they call me RJ. Only my mother and aunt call me Robert, and that’s how I prefer it.”

“What should I call you?”

His eyebrow rose. “Mac is fine. RJ if you really wanna.”

“Okay.”

 

When she parked in front of his apartment complex, she asked him to wait a minute.

“Something wrong?”

“No, no. It’s just, ah…”

“Go on.”

She wouldn’t look at him, staring straight ahead of her and gripping the steering wheel so hard her knuckles went pale. “I s’pose now is probably a bad time for me to tell you I like you, huh?”

Catching himself smiling, he answered softly, “It’s not a bad time at all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That coffee thing really happened to me, lmao. It hurt like a motherfucker for a couple days, but I toughed out the whole eight-hour shift and took bad advice from my boss to ice it.  
> Don't ice burns.  
> My hand ended up fine, but let me tell you, it was hard to go to school the next day and sign with my interpreters with one hand that was hard to move because of bandaging.


	6. The Night In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two people who are ~totally not dating~ having a ~not-date~ at Mac's house

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ELTON JOHN'S "THE BITCH IS BACK" BLASTING AT FULL VOLUME]
> 
> I am SO SORRY that I left y'all hanging for so long!! Since JULY of LAST YEAR smh I'm terrible at updating in timely manners but y'know college and work kicked the ever-living shit out of me last semester along with family drama so it was wild but watashi ga kita friends ya boi has returned

“I don’t think you have a mean bone in your body,” Sole said, placing her Mike’s blackberry lemonade bottle back on Mac’s coffee table.

They weren’t ‘officially’ a couple or anything, but they’d been hanging out more and more over the past two months since Sole had brought up that she had a crush on Mac.

 

* * *

 

 

_“Are you sure it’s not bad timing on my end?” she asked, finally looking him in the eye._

_“I’m sure. You okay?”_

_“What? Yeah, I’m fine. I just… This is weird. I don’t know how to go about this stuff anymore.”_

_“Hey, I’m not judging you for that,” he laughed. “I fell in love with a girl I was dating in high school and got married at 18 ‘cause she was knocked up. Believe me, if I_ ever _had a clue as to how this goes, I sure don’t anymore.”_

_She chuckled, albeit weakly._

_“So what do you wanna do about it?”_

_“Is that your way of saying you like me back, or is that a rejection?”_

_“The first one, genius.”_

_The visible, shaky relief that crashed over her was the cutest thing he’d ever seen her do._

_“Honestly? I have no idea.”_

 

* * *

 

 

So after texting back and forth about it, they came to the conclusion that they’d take a backseat and just see where things went without pushing. It felt safest, so to speak. If they pushed, there’d be pressure to make the relationship good. If there was pressure, the stress would make it fall apart. As such, they concluded that _laissez-faire_ was the way to go.

“Seriously?” he asked in disbelief. “Have you ever met me?”

“No; whose house is this, stranger, and how did you get me here?” She used a dramatic voice for extra comedic effect. “But for real, I don’t think you have it in you to be _mean._ ”

“I declared you my sworn enemy for the first month or so of knowing you because you moved into the apartment I wanted but couldn’t have, so I acted mean and stuff.”

Sole practically choked on her drink. “You’re kidding.”

“What?”

“Is that what you consider mean? Calling my dog ‘Meathead’ and not using a customer service persona in front of me? Wow, bully of the year award goes to Robert MacCready!” Sarcastic applause was added.

“I dug at the fact that you have Nate’s ring around your neck and used my ‘eff off’ voice with you, that’s gotta be somewhat mean!”

“Oh, you sweet, silly man. Hardly. I’ve had dudes call me a _B-I-T-C-H_ as their main method of _flirting with me._ ” She eyeballed Duncan, her reason for spelling the word, with a warm smile as he ran around gathering his stuff for the birthday party he was attending. “And if that’s your ‘eff off’ voice, I really think it needs work.”

“You’re kiddin’ me.”

“I am not.”

“That’s awful.”

“Yep.”

“So you’re sure I wasn’t mean?”

“Sweetheart, I would’ve thought you were just acting like any other barista who was maybe having a bit of a bad day.”

There was a moment when both of them froze upon realising Sole had called him ‘sweetheart.’

“Is that out of bounds?” she asked timidly.

“No, no… Definitely not out of bounds... _babe._ ”

Her heart turned to mush in her chest. “Stop it, it’s not fair that you’re that cute!”

 _“¡Vamanos, Duncan!”_ Mac’s mom called from down the hall. Her heavy footsteps approached as she entered the living room to wrangle her grandson. “ _Hola,_ Sole, _¿como estás?”_

 _“Estoy bien, Señora MacCready, gracias, ¿y usted?_ ”

 _“Estoy muy bien, gracias.”_ Josefina turned her attention to her son, speaking much more quickly and less formally, and he responded in the same manner.

Mac’s mom had opened her home to Sole without second thought. Though her son had tried to explain countless times that he wasn’t _seeing_ Sole, his insistence did not have her convinced. Indeed, whenever Sole came around, she made extra effort to stay out of their way...which was why she offered to chaperone Duncan to the birthday party.

So that, plus his aunt being out of town and his cousins being out late with friends, meant Mac had the place to himself, if only for a few hours.

As such, he had invited Sole over to hang out, snack, maybe watch a movie or something.

God, he felt like such a teenager. An awkward teenager with a big dopey crush on a prettier person than him who somehow liked him back but he didn’t know where to go from there.

Which, actually, had been the exact same situation with Lucy. But Lucy, that soft little sweetheart, was always in the driver’s seat of the relationship. She was the one who initiated everything. He would’ve been too clueless and shy to do anything if not for her.

Things were different now.

When his mom and Duncan left, Mac went to the kitchen to put some snacks in the oven. Sole followed, offering to help but being kindly rejected every time.

“You’re a guest!” he insisted. “What kind of host would I be to make _you_ cook?”

“Fine,” she grumbled, “but when you come over to my place, _I’m_ making food and _you’re_ not allowed to help.”

His gut lurched. He’d never been inside the apartment before, just looked at the pictures and gone through one of those ‘virtual tours’ online that was really just a video walking through the home. He wasn’t sure how he’d feel if he were actually _in_ his dream apartment.

But he brushed it off, hoping Sole didn’t notice his momentary mind-glitch.

She did. Her eyes narrowed and she smirked. “I’d almost forgotten that it was your dream apartment till tonight. Are you nervous over seeing the home you wanted or nervous about being in _my_ home?”

Mac swallowed hard. “Both.”

Sole chuckled, leaning her back against the counter beside him as he scattered snacks across pans. She was so close he would touch her if he wasn’t careful. _Shitshitshitshitshit…_

Why was he so stressed out about accidentally brushing up against the person he was sort-of dating? He felt his cheeks and ears getting hot.

The pans went in the oven, the timers were set and Mac was turning back around when Sole called softly, “Hey, come here.”

_Oh God._

She took both of his hands and gently pulled him close to her, but kept a bit of distance between them for the sake of his comfort.

“Is everything okay?” Mac asked.

“Yeah, of course. I just…” Sole trailed off with a deep breath and it made him nervous. “I think you’re really great and I like you a lot.”

He smiled, heart melting into a puddle, and squeezed her hands. “I also think you’re really great and I like you a lot too.” There was a pause, and then his voice dropped. “You’re making me really want to kiss you.”

“Then what are we doing standing around?”

With a dopey grin, Mac went for the old 90-10 rule, leaning in most of the way and letting Sole make the choice to meet him.

When she did, it felt like his entire body was so perfectly warm that he never wanted to feel anything else in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mac got his middle name from his mom and you can pry that from my cold dead hands


	7. The Graduate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sole is finally a college graduate with a degree in law.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so, my loves, we come to the end.
> 
> Thank you for joining me on this mostly-unplanned journey. I hope you enjoyed our time together, because I sure did. This was the first multichapter work I have ever completed and posted, and I'm proud of it.

She graduated in December, after years of hard work and life getting in the way, and the only person she wanted to celebrate with was Mac.

She didn’t walk for graduation, saying it wasn’t her style, but he took her out for a celebratory dinner the night she would have if she had chosen to.

“Wherever you want,” he offered.

“Let’s just go to Sin Fronteras,” she answered.

“Really? You don’t want something more upscale for your big day?”

“Really, I promise. Lupita makes the best raspberry margaritas and I love the burrito con salsa verde.”

“Jaime and Oscar are gonna wanna bug you.”

“Let ‘em.”

“Alright, if you’re sure…”

“I am.”

So they went and Jaime seated them at the good booth in the corner. Sole ordered her margarita, and Mac said  _ to hell with it _ and copycatted her.

They chattered about things from Duncan’s kindergarten holiday “concert” next week to Dogmeat’s newfound love of steak to Mac’s boss going out of town for Christmas to the influx of challah requests at the café for Chanukah.

“I’m picking up on the braiding technique,” he said. “It’s tricky but I’m getting it.”

“I’m sure you’re doing great.”

After dinner, they ordered churros and ice cream to share, finished their drinks and ventured back into the biting cold outside.

They held each other’s gloved hands as they walked back towards the parking lot of the café where Mac had left his car.

“You sure you’re suitable to drive?” she asked as she leaned against the driver’s side door and he in turn leaned into her.

Actually, he was totally fine to drive. Sole had a portable chart in her wallet that showed when people would be clear to drive based on their weight, sex and how many drinks they’d had. He would’ve been a-okay.

“I’ll be fine.”

“It’s icy.” Her hands were sliding up his chest.

“I’m a careful driver.”

“I know you are.” She very gently tugged his scarf to ask him to kiss her.

She tasted like cinnamon sugar and vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce, but to be fair, so did he.

MacCready felt a bit silly making out with his girlfriend leaned up against his piece of shit car, but the surge of excitement was enough to keep him from shying away.

And then he felt the words he’d been carefully keeping making their way up his throat before he could stop and think if it was the right time or not.

“Mm, hey,” Mac mumbled breathlessly between kisses. “Hey, I love you.”

He expected her to stop, to freeze in her tracks. Instead, she gave him one smiley, lingering kiss before pulling back and replying, “I love you too, RJ.”

The weight of the world fell off his shoulders for the moment and he laughed awkwardly. “Thank God.”

She snorted. “Nerd.”

Without Sole’s touch, the cold caught up to him and he shivered. “As much as I’d like to stay out here with you, I think we’re gonna freeze, so I oughta head home…”

“Or…”

“‘Or’?”

Sole bit her lip before she decided. “You can come up and see it if you want, you know,” she said. “The apartment, I mean. I know you’ve been wanting to forever.”

MacCready smirked to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the words of Travis "Lonely" Miles once again: I hope you liked it, 'cause, uh, I can't take it back. :)
> 
> Also I do have one of those wallet charts IRL, it looks something like [this.](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yvipwE9i-f4/VMorBuuu69I/AAAAAAAAGwA/cqvf3xb6Mcs/s1600/BAC_Chart.jpg) I've never needed to use it but it's nice to have on hand.
> 
> I suppose now's as good a time as any to issue a friendly reminder that I take requests and commissions over [here](https://majwind.tumblr.com/wid), and if you really like what I do, you can leave me a tip via [Ko-Fi!](http://ko-fi.com/R5R7FVH3) Whether you do that or not, please know that I appreciate your time, attention and kind words.


End file.
